Fendi to feature fur at couture show

Fendi designer Karl Lagerfeld is to stage a high fashion fur-centric show in Rome.

The show is a collaboration between Lagerfeld and the Italian fashion house and is set to be unveiled during a couture week on July 7 (16).

According to WWD, the "haute fourrure" or "couture fur" show will also mark the Rome-based label's 90th anniversary celebrations.

While they did not disclose a venue for its display, the luxury retailer billed the show as "the best way to celebrate Fendi’s 90-year anniversary, as it expresses our roots and DNA while transmitting daring, creativity and craftsmanship in furs."

Fendi, part of luxury giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, held its first high-fashion fur show in July last year (15), and it is believed to have been a commercial success, yielding multiple orders for coats priced as high as 800,000 euros (£566,000).

German-born Lagerfeld made headlines last year (15) when he marked 50 years of designing for Fendi by staging the house’s first haute fourrure show - making the couturier the only designer to stage two high-fashion displays in one week.

And while the show came under criticism from animal activist groups such as PETA, Lagerfeld, 82, defended the use of fur.

"For me, as long as people eat meat and wear leather, I don’t get the message. It’s very easy to say no fur, no fur, no fur, but it’s an industry," he told The New York times last March (15), adding that he is very sympathetic to the anti-fur cause. "I hate the idea of killing animals in a horrible way, but I think all that improved a lot. I think a butcher shop is even worse."

Fendi first set up shop in 1926 on Via del Plebiscito and in March this year (16), the company unveiled its newly renovated Rome flagship, which boasts an in-house fur atelier, staffed with artisans. its first boutique hotel, the Fendi Private Suites as well as a Zuma restaurant.